What are you making today?

Making homemade laundry soap again today! I’ve been making my own laundry stuff for over a year now and absolutely love it. There are ZERO draw backs! Homemade laundry stuff is easy, cheap, and a clean you can’t find on a store shelf! I love that I can easily make my own detergent and fabric softener that saves tons of money and keeps my clothes, washer, and family clean, healthy, and safe.

Let me know if you want more info on my recipes and make sure you check out my etsy site where both of these items are for sale!

And comment to tell me what you’re making today!

Naomi 🌷

 

First bloom!

The first rose bloom is here! I am so happy for warmer weather and flowers blooming. It really warms my heart and brightens my day. I love love love gardening and seeing all of God’s blessings.

Take a few moments to be outside today and enjoy the beauties of spring! 😃

Naomi

 

Twitter!

Follow me on twitter @naomihomemade for quick updates and thoughts! 😀

Honey Face Wash!

Hey guys!

So I started using Honey this week as my facial cleanser and I LOVE IT!!

I got a jar of raw honey at the grocery store and just keep it in my medicine cabinet. My face feels clean and OH SO SOFT 🙂

Just raw honey and water. That’s all it takes. I love the simplicity of this face wash and the health benefits as well! 

Try it and let me know how it works for you!

Oh, but there’s more good news!

I have transformed my entire face routine in the midst of this new honey revolution. I made toner and moisturizer too!!

The toner is just one part ACV (apple cider vinegar) and two parts water. It doesn’t smell awesome but I’ve been using acv in the shower for so long now that it doesn’t really phase me anymore. 

The moisturizer? Just coconut oil! I know that I can add a lot more into it but I love the simplicity of just using coconut oil to moisturize my face 🙂

Added bonus? Coconut oil does have very mild spf properties too! I know that I need to get some zinc oxide to add to the moisturizer to make it have a better spf and protect myself better but for right now I am super excited. 

What are you doing to purify your life?? Let me know!

Naomi

http://www.etsy.com/shop/naomihomemade

Homemade face wash

Hey everyone!

So we all know that I love making things homemade and all natural! I’ve been thinking lately about taking another step in that direction, already my cleaners, laundry detergent, fabric softener, shampoo, and conditioner are all homemade and natural, but I’m thinking about working on soaps and things too! I am NOT a soap maker (although I may be soon!) and I really like super easy solutions that I can mix together very quickly and use with no fuss.

I heard that you can use honey as a facial cleanser and maybe add a bit of baking soda to help remove make up. That sounds like an awesome idea to me with some great benefits (including extremely cheap and easy!!). Have any of you ever tried this method before or know anything about it?? Let me know!!!

 

🙂 Naomi 🙂

 

Update on homemade shampoo and conditioner!

Whew! This post has been a long time coming but maybe it’s better that I’ve waited to share how it has gone for me until I’ve really had time to evaluate!

When I first started using the homemade shampoo and conditioner, I struggled with it. My hair felt oily and after a week or less really the oiliness was just too much and I broke down and used store bought for just one day. (Didn’t hurt anything and my hair felt better!) but then I started back on my homemade stuff and started making some changes. I added more baking soda (probably double or more than I added the first time) and I seriously cut down on the amount of acv I used as conditioner.

Now, my hair is healthy and clean and smooth and I love it!! I finally found some condiment bottles that work really well and hold more stuff. Again, I recommend focusing more on the baking soda and less on the acv than I thought I should. My hair has always been naturally dry and sometimes just hard to handle, so I guess I underestimated the power of the acv to actually condition my hair. Now I use it sparingly except on the ends and I wash it out of my scalp immediately. I then put more on the ends of my hair and I let that sit for a couple of minutes.

This formula really does work and I recommend it to everyone. Why spend so much money on a bunch of chemicals to put in your hair when all you really need is probably in your kitchen right now and much healthier for you??

Here is the recipe again if you missed it:

Shampoo: baking soda and water. I use a good amount of baking soda. Probably about 1/6 of the container and then fill with water and shake. Apply it to your roots and scrub (it will not foam but that’s okay. It still works!).

Conditioner: Apple cider vinegar!! I would dilute it pretty heavily because it could make your hair oily. I dilute it to about 1/4 acv and 3/4 water. You can add essential oils for scent and other helpful properties. In my picture, I have added fresh rosemary!

Good luck and let me know how it turns out for you!!

 

Homemade shampoo and conditioner!!

So I finally got my stuff together to make and try out my own Homemade shampoo and conditioner!! So far, I really like it! No fuss. Super cheap. And super easy!!! All I did was add about a teaspoon of baking soda to this small green bottle of water and shook it up to make the shampoo!
Then I added straight apple cider vinegar to the small pink spray bottle! That’s it! I wanted to add some peppermint or rosemary or something to add some scent and other healthy properties for my hair but I didn’t have anything so I just left it.

I squirted the baking soda water straight onto my scalp in several places and scrubbed my scalp. It honestly just felt like I was pouring cold water onto my scalp and scrubbing, but I do think it worked!
Then I sprayed the acv throughout my hair and especially on my ends, put my hair up for the rest of my shower to let it sit and then rinsed it out.

My hair hasn’t dried yet, so I won’t probably know if I REALLY like this method until tomorrow but I can already tell that my hair feels cleaner and silkier than it would normally using regular products!

I’ll let you know what I think tomorrow!

Naomi

DIY Cleaning Wipes!!

So I’ve seen a few people talking about making their own cleaning wipes and I’ve been wanting to try it for a while now. We use lysol wipes all over the house for small cleaning jobs and Big ones just because it’s convenient and simple, but I don’t like using all of the chemicals or wasting the paper when I could easily make something reusable like this. I especially don’t like the price on some of these items because, quite often, convenience doesn’t come cheap!!

I made these wipes using just three ingredients that are remarkably similar to my fabric softener!
1 part water
1 part vinegar
Small amount of peppermint extract (you can use a few drops of essential oil if you’d rather)

All I did was fill my container almost halfway with water, the other part white distilled vinegar, and then added a bit of peppermint for smell. I like the idea of using tea tree oil for the antibacterial properties, but I didn’t have any and I am pretty confident in vinegar ‘s abilities in that arena anyway.
Then I just took some old rags that I had laying around (I also used some old t-shirt scraps that I had made into rags beforehand), folded them up and stuck them in the container. Now all I have to do is pull out a rag, clean my mess and throw it in the laundry! So easy!!

Disclaimer: the vinegar solution may very well stain or bleach out your rags. I don’t really mind because mine are discolored anyway and they are just rags, but if you are attached to the look of your rags, you may want to find some different rags to use on this project.

 

Stop using harsh chemicals to clean your slow-moving drains! I found a recipe for an all natural way to clean out your drains using only salt and baking soda! I tried it out last night and it worked great!

Our drain had been moving slow for quite some time. The drain would work just fine, but too much water coming down too fast would slow down the drain tremendously and was just annoying. Now, the water flows down great with no hesitation!

The recipe called for 1/2 cup of salt and 1 cup of baking soda, however, that amount would NOT fit down my drain. The 1/2 cup of salt filled the drain all the way to the top and then some!

So, I monitored and adjusted. I poured a little bit of salt down the drain, just enough to coat the sides and NOT to fill the drain. After that, I poured a healthy amount of baking soda down the drain, coating the sides and filling the drain just a bit.

Leave this mixture to sit in the drain overnight if you can. Don’t use the drain for anything during that time. In the morning, boil about a liter of water and pour the boiling water down the drain. You will be able to see and hear the reaction as the boiling water works its way through the mixture in the sink and clears everything down!

It works wonders!

Have a VERY blessed day! 🙂

Happy MLK day!

Let’s talk cleaning supplies

Okay so we’re all becoming more aware and more concerned about the chemicals and processes involved in our foods, but have you ever thought about the myriad of mystery chemicals and toxins in your favorite cleaning products? They may say that they kill the germs on our surfaces, but at what cost?

I hate to think about all of the chemicals in our cleaning products that we spread around our entire house and then feel safe, especially when there are natural ways to get our surfaces clean without the risk of harming our families with toxins!

Basically all I use around my house is vinegar. I use about one part vinegar and one part water, put it in a spray bottle and it’s good to go! I use this for almost all of my surfaces including Windows and even wood, (although it might hurt some wood surfaces, it hasn’t hurt any of mine).

If the smell bothers you, grab your favorite extract or essential oil and add scent to the mixture. I used lemon and it seems to work well to mask the smell but I might switch to peppermint because I use that in my fabric softener and I like the smell better.

Try this out and let me know how it works for you!